US Provides Intelligence and Target Planning for Saudi-Led Coalition Offensive in Yemen; Houthi Strike on Riyadh Airport Kills 3

The Saudi-led coalition, backed by US intelligence sharing, target identification, and operational planning support, launched a major cross-border military offensive against Yemen over the weekend. The Houthis retaliated on October 8 with a ballistic missile strike on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, killing three Saudi citizens, including Saudi Airlines Group captain Hamoud Ali Al-Qarsami.

According to The Hindu, Saudi Arabia's civil aviation authority issued a statement on October 9 saying the attack also injured people of "different nationalities," with injuries "ranging from minor to severe." The Saudi statement did not identify who was responsible for the attack, but the Houthis claimed they used a ballistic missile to strike the airport. The attack was the deadliest inside Saudi territory since the Saudi-led coalition launched its new offensive.

In a separate statement, Saudi Airlines Group said the first wave of strikes on October 8 targeted airport facilities, and a second wave hit a parked Saudi Airlines aircraft that was on the ground with no passengers. Airport operations subsequently returned to "normal."

The war's fires also burned civilians inside Yemen. Anees Al-Asbahi, a spokesman for the Houthi-run Health Ministry, said on social media platform X that two rounds of coalition airstrikes on the capital Sanaa from the night of October 8 into the early hours of the following day injured six people, including one child. Saudi authorities have not confirmed strikes on Sanaa. On the same day, the Saudi-led coalition claimed it had destroyed three rocket launch platforms used by the Houthis to "threaten regional security."

The spillover of the conflict is putting pressure on global civil aviation. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency updated its warning, saying the Houthis now have "the capability to strike deep targets inside Saudi Arabia" and are "increasingly targeting aviation infrastructure." The warning stressed that repeated missile and drone attacks, combined with the activation of air defense systems, "increase the risk of misidentifying civil aircraft, along with related risks from missiles and drones flying overhead, air defense interception activity, and falling debris." According to flight tracking website FlightAware, as of the afternoon of October 9, at least 124 flights to and from Riyadh had been cancelled. Air India has suspended operations until October 10, Lufthansa Group airlines until October 16, and Pakistan International Airlines has also suspended flights to and from Riyadh.

Regional military alliances are expanding in parallel. Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Sajjad Haider Khan told reporters in Islamabad that, under newly signed mutual defense pacts with Saudi Arabia and Turkey, Pakistan is providing Saudi Arabia with military capabilities to strike the Houthis, and said Saudi Arabia has a "legitimate right to protect its people and critical infrastructure." Kuwait's Foreign Ministry weighed in, calling Saudi Arabia's security "an integral part of the GCC's national security."

The US role in this round of fighting has been described as contradictory. On one hand, officials disclosed that the US is providing intelligence sharing, target identification, and operational planning support for Saudi Arabia's latest offensive; on the other hand, President Trump has so far refused to order the resumption of direct US military strikes against the Houthis—even though the US carried out nearly two months of intensive airstrikes against the group last year to open up international shipping lanes in the Red Sea. The trigger for US action at that time was Houthi attacks on commercial vessels and disruption of shipping lanes in response to Israel's blockade of Gaza; the US airstrikes failed to restore passage, and Trump ordered them halted after US forces expended hundreds of millions of dollars in munitions. The current Saudi-led coalition offensive aims to retake territory seized by the Houthis about a month ago along Yemen's western Red Sea coast and near the strategic chokepoint of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Mohammed Al-Jaber, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Yemen, claimed on social media platform X on October 9 that the Bab el-Mandeb Strait has been "cleared" of Houthi remnants, but provided no details, and there was no independent confirmation. UN special envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg was scheduled to brief the Security Council later on October 9 on the situation.